Barton on Disability

Barton’s “Textual Practices of Erasure” calls out the authenticity of human diversity. In particular, she handles the overall perception of disability and how more often it is of segregation and bigotry. Barton supports her argument with advertising and how stereotypical it can be presented. These presentations are a part of what she calls “discourses of disability” (169). In the past, campaigns against certain illnesses have been guilty of appealing to the nation’s emotions of pity or fear; thus the charity is generated/operated as a business. Pretty much perverting the function of charity’s rhetoric, extorting the American public and presenting what’s normal. In addition, Barton mainly blames The United Way for the way disabled people are observed. I totally agree with Barton and I believe that charity has appealed to the human pathos rather than logic. She shows certain ads and how morbid and straightforward the text is. One that stood out to me the most was the ad that read “the toughest handicap for a retarded child is that he becomes a retarded adult” (179). There’s no discretion on what’s being presented and who it may offend. Though it may have garnered a ton of proceeds for the cause, what is the true cause? Work Cited Barton, Ellen L. “Textual Practices of Erasure: Representations of Disability and the Founding of the United Way.” Embodied Rherorics: Disability in Language and Culture. Ed. James c. Wilson and Cynthia Lewiecki-Wilson. Carbondale: Sothern Illinois UP, 2001. 169-199.